Tiger Girl - (Gemma) by May-Lee Chai (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Nightmares of war flood the waking memories of Nea Chhim, a 19-year-old survivor of the Cambodian Killing Fields. In this sequel to the acclaimed Dragon Chica, Nea, a struggling college student, decides she must confront the past. Without telling Ma, she hops on a cross-country bus in Nebraska to seek out her biological father in Southern California. Nea comes face to face with a man wounded by survivor's guilt who refuses to acknowledge the family's secrets. It is up to Nea to find the truth. Tiger Girl weaves together Cambodian folklore and its painful past with contemporary American life to create an unforgettable novel about love, war, and acceptance. "An original storyteller writing a book about the need for a young woman's love, her cross-country journey that is also an inner journey, and her surviving, with others, a life they weren't meant to survive. This is their story, and I couldn't stop reading." ―Linda Hogan, The Book of Medicines and Indios "... a masterful storyteller with a poignant and gripping tale to tell. Tiger Girl travels far and wide, but in the end it's about families-not just the ones we're born into but also the ones we make for ourselves. Enthralling and moving and fascinating and absolutely wonderful." -Claire LaZebnik, If You Lived Here, You'd Be Home Now and Families and Other Nonreturnable Gifts "...captures the melancholy of growing up Khmer and misunderstood in America. Tiger Girl disrupts the silence that exists between Cambodian first generation children and their traumatized refugee parents." -Laura Tevary Mam, singer/composer, "Pka Proheam Rik Popreay (Morning Flowers Blossoming)"

Review Quotes

An original storyteller writing a book about the need for a young woman's love, her cross-country journey that is also an inner journey, and her surviving, with others, a life they weren't meant to survive. This is their story. I couldn't stop reading. This is a writer to follow on her own journey of words. - Linda Hogan, The Book of Medicines and Indios

Like many of her characters, May-lee Chai is a masterful storyteller with a poignant and gripping tale to tell. I couldn't put TIGER GIRL down: I wanted to know what was going to happen next of course, but I also wanted to learn more about the past, to understand the painful and astonishing paths that led these people to find one another. Her book travels far and wide, but in the end it's about families--not just the ones we're born into but also the ones we make for ourselves. It's enthralling and moving and fascinating and absolutely wonderful. - Claire LaZebnik, bestselling author of If You Lived Here, You've Be Home Now and Families and Other Nonreturnable Gifts

About the Author

May-lee Chai is the author of seven books, including Dragon Chica and The Girl from Purple Mountain, which was nominated for a National Book Award. She is the recipient of a 2006 NEA Grant in Literature and has an M.A. from Yale in East Asian Studies and an M.F.A. from San Francisco State University. A former reporter for the Associated Press, she is a frequent contributor to the Jakarta Post Weekender Magazine. May-lee has appeared on C-Span's Book-TV, Rick Steves' national radio show, and many other media outlets to talk about Asia.